Stable Block, Officers' Mess, Redford Cavalry Barracks, Colinton Road, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

A 3-storey, 29-bay, asymmetrical, wide butterfly-plan Officers' mess, dated 1914, with four associated stable blocks to the south, designed by Harry B. Measures. The Officers' mess is of dark, coursed rock-faced rubble with pale ashlar dressings and has channelled ashlar to the ground floor. There is a base course, band courses to all floors and an eaves course. The windows have projecting cills.

The principal elevation is to the west and has an advanced, central, Dutch gabled entrance bay. At the ground floor there is a segmental arch with a bowed balcony above which is flanked by massive decorative piers. These have finialled copper ball caps behind small scrolled pediments and 'GvR' and '1914' inscribed in decorative wreaths. There is a central 2-leaf half-glazed timber panelled entrance door with a fanlight and flanking windows within the arch.

There are round re-entrant angle turrets which have octagonal lanterns with round-arched window openings and ogee-roofed finialled copper domes. At ground level, the turrets have 2-leaf, half-glazed timber panelled doors with fanlights in segmental arches with prominent scrolled keystones. There are 6-light canted window bays between the central entrance bay and the turrets.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case windows with 12-pane glazing to the upper floors. There are timber casement windows to the ground floor with 6-over 4-pane glazing. There are grey graded slates and raised skews to the roof. The chimney stacks have deep cornices.

The interior was seen in 2016. The public rooms are situated on the ground floor with residential accommodation above. There is an octagonal entrance hall with a coved ceiling and an octagonal lantern. The dining room and the drawing room have timber chimney pieces with central panels, inscribed '19 GvR 14'. There are timber fire surrounds to some other public rooms. There are curved staircases within the turrets with timber banisters. Some of the rooms have simple decorative cornicing and there are timber and part-glazed doors.

The four stable blocks (building nos. 5-8) lie to the south and are also of dark, rock-faced rubble with pale ashlar dressings. They are all gabled, and buildings nos. 6-8 have haylofts, drop-platforms, hoists, round-arched entrances and irregular fenestration. They all have boarded timber stable doors and a Diocletian window at one gable end. Building no. 5 is smaller than the others and has a row of high windows and boarded timber doors. Building no. 8 has a former cell at the east end. The stable buildings have grey slates and the windows are mainly timber windows with a small glazing pattern.

Statement of Interest

Dating from 1915, the Officers' mess at Redford and its associated stables is amongst the largest buildings of its type in Scotland and are key buildings in a complex of infantry and cavalry buildings which make up the extensive Redford barracks. The mess building has some distinctive decorative features including its plan form, corner turrets and finialled domes. The complex as a whole was the pinnacle of military building prior to the First World War. The buildings are little altered to their exteriors and have significant amount of internal decoration dating to the early 20th century. They give an important and rare insight to the way our military was organised at the beginning of the 20th century.

Age and Rarity

Within the military, the different ranks of personnel lived and socialised separately. Officers had their own separate accommodation and recreational facilities and most barracks sites had an officers' mess building. The stables are depicted on the Ordnance Survey map, published in 1914, which advises that the barracks are under construction. There was a hierarchy in stable accommodation for the horses as well as the men, and the Officers' stables are more spacious than those provided for the men in the barracks. The horses here have individual stable doors at the side of the building. Officers' included not only those who would serve on the front line, but also those in administrative positions. A substantial mess building was therefore required.

Redford cavalry barracks was built to replace poor cavalry accommodation at Piershill in Edinburgh. Questions had been raised in Parliament in 1900 about the state of the accommodation at Piershill and, by 1909, the barracks there had been recognised as inadequate. As the military troops based in Edinburgh were also housed in cramped conditions at Edinburgh Castle, the decision was taken by the Government to build a new substantial complex incorporating barracks for both infantry and cavalry and including all the necessary associated buildings on the same site at Redford. Although on the same extensive site, the cavalry barracks (located to the east) and infantry barracks (located to the west) were administered separately.

The cavalry barracks were built to be home to the Royal Scots Greys regiment, who moved to Hounslow as their main base in 1937. Redford barracks was the largest barracks to be built in Scotland since Fort George in Inverness (1748-1769, Scheduled Monument SM6692). The Redford barracks was the most advanced of its type in Britain at the time and the best equipped, incorporating all the latest developments in training and accommodation. The barracks reflect the military confidence of Britain before the start of the First World War.

The magnitude of the building programme at Redford was so great that the builders, Colin MacAndrew Ltd, built their own railway to transport materials from the main line at Slateford. The Scotsman in 1914 noted 'there is no point at the extensive field at Redford where building operations are in progress which are not served by either the broad or narrow gauge railways'.

All of the cavalry buildings lying to the east of the entire barracks site and include a large barracks block with its associated stables, a guard house with its associated gates and gatepiers, a Commander in Chief's house and stables, (Balaclava House), the Officers' mess and stables, a former Sergeants' mess, a band block, an education block, which was originally a school and other auxiliary buildings including further stables, farriers and stores. The cavalry barracks originally included a riding school to the southeast, which is no longer in situ (2016). There were originally married quarters at the centre of the site, but these were demolished in the 1990s. The infantry barracks and all its associated buildings lie to the west of the site.

Within the military, the different ranks of personnel lived and socialised separately. Officers had their own separate accommodation and recreational facilities and most barracks sites had an officers' mess building. There was a hierarchy in stable accommodation for the horses as well as the men, and the Officers' stables are more spacious than those provided for the men in the barracks. The horses here have individual stable doors at the side of the building. Officers' included not only those who would serve on the front line, but also those in administrative positions. A substantial mess building was therefore required.

During the last quarter of the 19th century, the expanding British Empire required more personnel for its administration and its security. To help with the recruitment and training of soldiers, the Secretary of State for War, Edward Cardwell, introduced the Military Localisation Bill in 1872, which introduced new recruiting and training centres around Britain. The majority of the architectural design and planning was carried out by the Director of Design, Major H C Sneddon, and a number of standard types of barracks resulted. Local variations were possible, for example at the Cameron Barracks at Inverness, listed at category B (LB35340) where Scots Baronial architectural features are used. During this period the overall planning and layout of a barracks complex changed from a strict symmetry of buildings around a parade ground to placing the various buildings in the most sensible position according to function.

Up until the beginning of the 20th century, all military fortifications, including barracks were the responsibility of the Royal Engineers. This was reviewed from 1902 and as a result, a civilian department was formed in 1904 under the direction of the Director of Barracks Construction which was responsible for War Department buildings. The new director was Harry Measures. Measures had his own ideas about the design of barracks buildings and he instigated the bringing of various functions under the same roof which had previously had separate buildings. His first project was new cavalry barracks at Norwich, which he designed with all the ancillary and recreational functions in the ground floor of the building with residential accommodation above. This was never built but his ideas on design were realised at Redford.

Following the First World War and over the course of the 20th century, the practice of warfare and the organisation of the military changed. Military accommodation was updated and smaller residential units became standard. Horses were replaced by machinery and Redford cavalry barracks, was amongst the last of its type to be built on such a large scale. Only the Hyde Park Barracks in London, built by Sir Basil Spence in 1970 for the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment are comparable in size and scale. A number of cavalry barracks in Scotland were demolished in the 1960s, including at Maryhill in Glasgow and at Perth.

The Officers' mess and stables for the cavalry are key buildings in a complex of cavalry and infantry buildings which make up one of the largest barracks sites ever built in Britain. The mess has significant architectural detailing, in keeping with the status of its occupants and has been little altered. Redford barracks was the pinnacle of military building prior to the First World War and the complex as a whole is a rare survivor.

Architectural or Historic Interest

Interior

An officers' mess building would traditionally have more decorative features and be of a higher quality than the accommodation for the regular cavalry. The interior of the Officers' mess here is not overly elaborate, but it does have a distinctive octagonal entrance hall and spiral stairs within the turrets. This building demonstrates the hierarchy of its status within Redford cavalry barracks, showing a medium amount of architectural detailing and decoration. The decoration includes the carved timber fire surrounds and simple cornicing.

Plan form

There does not seem to have been a standard plan-form for an Officers' mess building, but the wide butterfly-plan used here is distinctive and adds to the design interest of the building. The use of the plan is one way of breaking up the possible monotony of a very long elevation required for such a large building. The New Building, Officers' Training College, mess and barracks at Sandhurst (listed at Grade II, Ref no 1390374), also by Measures has a symmetrical plan-form with a central tower.

Internally, the arrangement of recreation rooms to the ground floor and residential accommodation above is standard.

Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality

The Officers' mess building is distinguished by a number of decorative features used, both in the stonework and in the design. The stone used to build the barracks came from Black Pasture and Doddington quarries in Northumberland, which provided stone for a number of buildings in Scotland. The contrast between the smooth blond stone used in the ground floor and margins with the rock-faced darker stone used in the rest of the building gives the building a characteristic appearance.

A number of design features are incorporated into the building, including the use of prominent keystones and carved decoration to the stonework. The round towers to the wings with prominent finialled domes and the Dutch gabled entrance with flanking columns to the entrance arch give the building an imposing character, consistent with its higher status use as an Officers' mess.

Harry Bell Measures (circa 1862-1940), was based in London and was the first (and only) holder of a new civilian post, Director of Barrack Construction, which was created in 1904 in order to free the Royal Engineers for other, more military, duties. He designed a number of stations for the Central London Railway, several of which survive as current London Underground stations, including Oxford Circus (listed at Grade II). In terms of barracks buildings, however, Douet (1998) suggest that Measures rethought the layout of barracks buildings and 'abandoned the long-entrenched principles of subdivision and separation of the various elements and functions'. Redford Barracks appears to be one of the few barracks sites he completed with his only other large military building the New College at the royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, listed at Grade II (Ref no 1390374).

Setting

Redford cavalry Officers' mess and stables are key buildings in a wider complex of military barracks buildings and their ancillaries that make up Redford Barracks. They are situated at the extreme east of the site.

Some of the earliest buildings in the Redford site, including the married quarters which lay to the east of this building have been demolished and replaced with modern military accommodation. While there have been some later alterations to the group of buildings at the barracks site, the majority of the 1909-1915 buildings remain, however, and the integrity of the site continues to help our understanding of the organisation of our military in the years leading up to the First World War.

The buildings are situated within the Colinton Conservation Area.

Regional variations

There are no known regional variations.

Close Historical Associations

No close historical associations known at present.

As a major military base in Scotland, Redford barracks has provided accommodation and services for a number of Regiments which have been involved in the defence of the United Kingdom over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2017 as part of the Redford Barracks Listing Review. Previously listed as Colinton Road, Redford Cavalry Barracks With Officer's Mess, Balaclava House, Guard House, Gates, Gatepiers, Sergeant's Mess, Former Band Block, Education Block, Former Stables, Stores And Other Ancillary Buildings.

REDFORDCAVALRY3, REDFORDCAVALRY5, REDFORDCAVALRY6, REDFORDCAVALRY7, REDFORDCAVALRY8.

External Links

Historic Environment Scotland Listing

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